Education and Misinformation As Hurricane Sandy Approaches New Jersey: Flashlights, Batteries, Bottled Water, Homelessness? Duct Tape On Your Windows Is As Useless As Duct Tape On Your Tent

This year the forecast is worse but I don't feel so afraid. I'm pretty certain it's because I don't have TV. I've looked at weather maps and the information of NWS and NOAA. I feel well informed and well prepared without being fed propaganda all day. I have also seen how many people scoff at the storm. Especially in the wake of Irene who left our shores largely untouched while northern New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Vermont suffered for weeks and months to get the power on, clean up, and make repairs due to trees and flooding.

After last year I still keep my house stocked with a weeks worth of bottled water. We always have lots of rice and soup and extra canned goods around so that's not a problem. We'll stay this time unless they evacuate the coast. There will be more information on what to expect from the storm as it approaches. Many people especially after last year are not taking it as any kind of serious threat. I've always had a healthy respect for mother nature and what she is capable of so I just stay informed and as prepared as you can be and hope for the best. I don't feel the need to joke about the fact that I didn't lose anything last time because I still feel lucky. I welcome the opportunity to say as much this Wednesday.

The past couple nights 2 black kittens have been playing in my back yard. Tonight they approached my husband (I jokingly refer to him as the animal whisperer). Last year in the week leading up to the hurricane Leo (our cat) went from prowling around the neighborhood to going right up to my husband wanting to be pet. We fed him one night and the following night he wouldn't leave and demanded to come inside. As much as a cat can demand. So Leo went to the vet, he had been de-clawed and neutered by the previous owner who dumped him outside and he so became an indoor cat. 

The weekend after was Irene. Kyle, Zack, and I went to my mother in laws because I was terrified. It had been a very long time since a weather event where I felt my life could be threatened. Not since the days of childhood where the responsibilities did not rest upon me. I think it was during the flooding of the lagoon when I was 7 that cemented my respect for nature, but not fear. We had to wade through knee deep water to rescue Little Bit my dog but he was fine and although some of our stuff was wet, so were we. It's a good thing to know that you can always get new stuff and that life will go on. It's not the stuff that makes us who we are.

Let's get back to this storm and this year. We left food out for the 2 black cats as a peace offering so that they know they can come here if they need to get out of the storm. I don't have cable T.V. so without the propaganda about what to shop for I didn't feel the need to go buy more and I don't have the feeling of not having enough. I made my own mental check list of things to get done today, like all the laundry and dishes in case there is no power for a few days. Tomorrow I'll secure the stuff in the yard which we have plenty of time to do. 

My only concern about staying now is how much wind the old trees outside my house, a couple of which I think are sick, are going to hold up if we actually get 75 MPH sustained winds for 24-48 hours. If that happens that is going to feel like the longest 48 hours of our lives. Even with the 10 ft storm surge and the high tide I feel like our house won't flood. Anything is possible but it's not my biggest fear. If that seems possible we'll surely be evacuated tomorrow. But winds that high for that long, with gusts are not something most of us are ready for especially after last time and "all the hype" which now numerous people have said to me. We have a lot of time now to prepare, but some still won't as an affront to being put out by Mother Nature last year and having to clean up summer early.

I thought back to the kittens which made me think of all the thousands of abandoned and feral animals that will be weathering this storm outside who weren't as lucky as Leo. Maybe we shouldn't laugh in the wake of Irene when we realize it was a lot worse for the least of us and really really shitty for some unlucky people who lived a week without power or had their homes flooded and lives ruined. One website I was on, about what to do with animals in the storm, was asking for volunteers at shelters who take in massive amount of strays people drop off because they weren't as lucky as Leo. 

When the animals seem scared I take notice. And they do. I feel more relaxed this year entirely because I feel more connected to nature and the world than I did last year. Last time around I felt taken off guard. This time I know what is coming. I am hoping to fare well. But many people are going to struggle through flooding or power outages. Instead of mock them by saying the storm wasn't so bad when they lose things they can't afford to replace, let's try and have some compassion.

With all the talk of buying water and batteries, and even if you consider the animals, no one really is thinking about or at least no one is talking about one thing. We are all hoping that our houses weather the storm and we are left standing. What about the people who live in Tent City? The last time Kyle and I talked about Tent City was last winter we realized, because it only made the news once since then. Lakewood New Jersey's version of Tent City because I have since found many exist in NJ and I'm sure they span the nation. January and February, which I would think are the hardest months to make it through living outside, was when Lakewood chose to try and evict Tent City. Lakewood's Tent City was harassed by police and many times police tried to dismantle it. In February a judge ruled that the police could not evict Tent City. At least sometimes judges still make rational decisions. 

You cannot legislate away homelessness. Homelessness is a symptom of our broken society. If you make it illegal to be homeless there is still nowhere else to go. The police were ordered to back off from Tent City. Not before they confiscated the bus that Steve Brigham, Minister Steve as my husband recalled him, ran the community out of. The primary thing of value I am guessing Minister Steve still owned. The only real shelter or vehicle of the community was towed away by the Lakewood community and crushed. As I told my husband the story of the bus he said, "Oh yeah? Minister Steve?! He seemed like a good guy. He came to Greenbriar (where my husband worked at the time) and we chopped up a bunch of wood and helped him load it on the school bus last winter. I can't believe they did that." I wonder how Tent City will get their wood this year without the bus, if they can even rebuild after this storm. 10 inches to some people will not just be, "a little rain."

Why on earth does anyone think that the way to a better society is to hurt the most vulnerable among us? Those of us, who have a secure shelter, as we contemplate whether boarding up the windows is necessary, would be wise to be thankful that we are of the many Americans who still have windows. In New Jersey last year there were well over 12,000 homeless people, over 4,000 of them children. As the recession hits the nation hard there are more and more Tent Cities cropping up around the country. They have laws to govern themselves and live civilly just like we do. But you can't get a job these days without a shower and nice clothes. We need to stop wishing for doom and gloom and Hollywood endings when for millions of American's every day is a struggle and those days are already here. Those of us who have always lived in the comfort of the American social safety net need to start realizing that we live in the Capital. We need to realize how bad things really are. 

I don't really care if anyone thinks humans contribute to global warming and dramatic climate change. I would like to start a conversation that begins with acknowledging that major catastrophic weather events have been happening more frequently which seems to correlate with the rising temperature of the planet. Whether or not we contributed to that or make it worse is not as important as finding out what parts of our system need upgrades and what parts need to be deemed unsafe under these conditions. The American power grid is over 20 years old, and has tons of problems that we have seen arise with every new storm or weather event. So are many of our water and gas systems. Our roads, bridges, and all of our public transportation are outdated and obsolete. 

No one trusts the news or the government so even when they say the threat is imminent we tend to ignore them. They make us panic and they make us shop away our fear through all the propaganda on TV. But shopping doesn't usually prepare you for a hurricane. We need better science to predict these events and help prepare people when they will be happening. We can't just keep pretending that nothing is wrong while Colorado was on fire for almost all of June. We need to wake up. I hope for your sake it's not from a hurricane. 

There are 4 empty homes in America for every homeless individual. 

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The 3rd Party Presidential Debate: The Real Debate

A private organization runs the two-party presidential debates. No 3rd party candidate has been included since Ross Perot. These candidates will talk about the issues we actually need to address to fix this world but very few people will see it compared to the debates promoted by advertising on TV and every YouTube video yesterday.

"We can perform these miracles as informed citizens."

Gary Johnson, former governor was excluded from the GOP primary process. He calls the 2 parties obsolete. He's picking up many of the Ron Paul votes since he has dropped out of the race.

During the interview prior to the debate he was asked, "Should education be privatized?"

He thinks privatization can bring better services and better products. I disagree. He wants the federal government out of education. We're already segregated, what would that accomplish?

Jill Stein suggests the Green New Deal. If you haven't read it. I highly suggest you do. It's the only plan taking into account the problems we are facing not just idealistic solutions. They have paid for it with a tax increase on the wealthy. Their budget balances. They want to bring about public tranportation, healthy local food, and green energy. She was arrested for trying to enter the second presidential debate. Her and her VP running mate were detained for 8 hours for trying to enter a public event for the debate of presidential candidates, even though she is on the ballot in 85% of the states. It is a huge barrier to get on the ballot in most states.

These candidates are just reiterating what people who would watch this debate already know. No one is learning anything for the most part because people who don't know these candidates and their platforms aren't watching.

Virgil Goode wants more grass roots movements and to expand political discussions to more points of view.
During the predebate interview he said electronic voting machines had a 600 billion dollar federal cost which was voted on with a large majority in the congress. And they increase the risk of fraud. They were a reaction to Florida. Using the archaic chads once again to diminish our democracy.

Voter ID laws are bigoted legislation to keep the poor from easy access to voting.

Basically everyone agrees we need a national popular vote plan for president.

In many districts the second party doesn't even run a competitive candidate. Redistricting and gerrymandering mean that most districts are decided by the politicians themselves. It would mean a lot to eliminate this practice.

Super PACs allow for anonymity so that foreign companies and countries can influence our elections with political ads. Most of the big money in state races comes from outside the state. Right now Sheldon Adleson, the Las Vegas casino tycoon who financially backed Newt Gingrich in the GOP primaries, is pouring money into the NJ election of Rabbi Shmully.

None of the mainstream media is talking about any of these issues. That is your proof the main stream media is bought and paid for by corporations.

There are so many people involved in the movement to educate people and reform our politics, there is a place and a cause for everyone's interests. Find something that suits your passions and get involved. </p>
The debate is finally starting. Even though they covered many topics in the pre debate discussion. Now its time for Larry King to say funny old guy stuff and make us laugh. Also they have decided to allow applause and reactions of the audience.

Larry King is excited to have the opportunity to help all sides be heard.

Independent Party Candidates

Rocky Anderson - The Justice Party

Jill Stein - The Green Party

Virgil Goode - The Constitution Party

Gary Johnson - The Libertarian Party

Question 1: How do you feel about the 2 party system?

Jill Stein feels we should have political parties, they have meaning. She feels the top 2 skew and manipulate the meaning of political parties.

Rocky Anderson says our democracy is restricted by the top 2 option. Corrupted by money and outside influence and leaves no choice for the voter. The debate is constricted. Obama is bragging about how big the military budget is and drilling on government parks and lands. Neither of them talk about getting rid of the catastrophic war on drugs, neither of them talk about poverty. The first presidential race in America had 18 presidential candidates. He would like to return to that. Rocky Anderson is a former Democrat but now officially done with that party.

Virgil Goode has been in 4 different parties, always a conservative. Also denounces the top 2 system. Money is not speech. He does not support mass spending on the part of government for party conventions.

Gary Johnson is a bipartisan former Republican. He says he is pro choice everything. He is now the presidential candidate of the libertarian party. He wants to make the case neither of the other candidates are making.
Larry King is doing this to help these people who stand up to be heard. It takes a lot of courage.

Jill Stein demands open debates in this country. She was arrested last week at the commison for presidential debate (a private corporation) for trying to enter.

Rocky Anderson wants free and equal access to the public air waves.

Virgil Goode says no super PACs. No big donations from large groups and  PACs. Only personal donations.

Gary Johnson wants 100% transparency for where money came from. If you get money for your campaign you should were a patch like NASCAR. Stop the use of drones in countries that won't attack us. Stop irresponsoble spending.

All questions submitted by social media.

Question 2: How do we deal with the war on drugs?

Oh wait... Way to go 3rd party debates. No wonder no one takes you seriously... Larry King forgot opening statements. He didn't have it in his notes so he went right to questions. Before second question opening statements. I won't reiterate Jill stein and Rocky Anderson here. I covered the points they made earlier in predebate discussions and the first question.

Virgil Goode says he will submit a balanced budget which neither candidate has done.
Gary Johnson says flat out first words in opening statement. "We should not bomb Iran." Good Job Gary! End the drug wars, legalize marijuanna now, repeal patriot act, repeal the NDAA, he promises a balanced budget.

I knew I liked you when you kept going on Mornig Joe trying to get into the GOP debates.
Back to Question 2: the war on drugs?

Rocky Anderson wants to release non violent marijuana offenders. End drug prohibition. Treat it like a public health problem that needs to be solved through education, not with the criminal justice system. We have more people in jail on drug offenses than western Europe has on all offenses.

Virgil Goode believes drug use is a state issue. He does not want to legalize marijuana. But he does want to seriously reduce the budget for the war on drugs.

Gary Johnson says 90% of the problem of drugs is through the illegality and not the use. A majority of people want marijuana legalized. Gary Johnson admits to using alcohol and marijuana and says emphatically that there is no evidence marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol. This is not about advocating drug use. It's an issue that belongs with families not the criminal justice system.

Jill Stein is a medical doctor. Marijuana is dangerous because it's illegal. It's not illegal because it's dangerous. It's not dangerous at all. It is well understood that the health impacts of marijuana are cause by marijuana prohibition and criminalization. On day 1 she would instruct the DEA to use science to schedule drugs. Marijuana and hemp will be legalized and have economic benefits. She wants to give small business to flourish under marijuana legalization instead of creating monopolies like in the tobacco industry.

Rocky Anderson says, "why is hemp illegal? Legalize industrial hemp now." He will issue presidential pardons for everyone who isn't in prison for other offenses than drugs.

Gary Johnson if you tell the truth about cocaine it would regulate itself. Cocaine puts holes in your heart. People need to be educated.

Question 3: Foreign Policy?

Virgil Goode and Gary Johnson want to reduce the military spending. Stop military interventions.

Gary Johnson "We funded Osama Bin Laden." In the 80s and created the taliban in Afghanistan. Brave words.

Jill Stein wants to end wars for oil, cut the budget and bring the troops home. End the use of drones abroad and at home. Ban drones as a weapon of war and for spying on Americans. We are not winning hearts and minds of the middle east by killing civilians with drones. Fight the war on climate change with our government, not the war for oil.

Rocky Anderson goes after the Military industrial complex. Originally called the congressional military industrial complex for a reason. Get rid of those benefiting from this corrupt system. No wars of aggression. If you haven't been attacked or aren't being attacked you are having an illegal war of aggression like the war in Iraq.

Gary Johnson did not support the war in Iraq. He admits supporting the first 6 months of Afghanistan until we eliminated al-Qaeda, should have gotten out after that. He does not support military action on Iran. We would just be creating more enemies.

Question 4:  How can we provide college for everyone? 

Gary Johnson doesn't believe we need federally backed student loans, because we give the loans to people who would think otherwise if they had to actually pay for it.

Jill Stein wants education to be free. As we have made it in the past through the G.I Bill. GO Jill Stein!!!! We owe our younger generation economic security that they need a college education for. The Fed is bailing out the banks for the fourth time. Let's bail out the students instead!

Rocky Anderson, to regain our competitive edge in the world we need equality in education. We need free colleges and technical schools. This is not radical, it works in many other parts of the world.
Virgil Goode we can't afford to federally approve more student loans. We need to balance the budget and there is no room for increased spending.

Gary Johnson does not want free education. We are going to experience a monetary collapse. We print money to pay for these things. There needs to be a level playing field for everybody.

Rocky Anderson rebuts we can not have massive spending cuts in education. We need to get behind workers and our young people.

Jill agrees with Rocky. We can not afford to not educate our students. Their education is good for all of us. We need fresh imagination and new ideas. We need to free our students from indentured servitude. (Hell yeah Jill Stein! just sayin')

Virgil Goode points out both Obama and Romney said in the debates they want to expand pellet grants. Except in reality Mitt Romney's plan doesn't actually call for that.

uestion 5: Where do you stand on the NDAA? 

Jill Stein says its against basic freedoms and American liberty. And we should repeal the military use act and put and end to presidentially issued assassinations. We need to end unwarrented wire taps on American citizens, end the patriot act, and the persecution of whistleblowers.

Rocky Anderson says the Bush and Obama administration have been subversive. The NDAA is the worst injustice in the American system thus far. We are headed towards totalitarianism. Obama excused the behavior of the prior administration and hasn't stopped any of these injustices like he promised in his 2008 campaign.

Virgil Goode would have vetoed NDAA.

Gary Johnson also would have vetoed the NDAA. ACLU rated the presidential candidates. Gary Johnson had the most liberty torches. (husband says, yay Gary got the most imaginary accolade units, go Gary) (On a side side note, my smart phone can't spell accolade but my HS drop out husband can.)

Question 6: If you could have one constitutional amendment you know would pass what would it be?

Rocky Anderson wants to pass the amendment banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. We could make the politicians in congress pass it if we take back control of our democracy. And let politicians know they will be held accountable on election day.

Virgil Goode wants congress to have term limits. Between 6 years or 12 years and end career politicians. Stop the constant collection of campaign funds.

Larry King: How will you pass it? Grandfather those in congress now to get it to pass.

Gary Johnson also wants term limits. The constant campaigning needs to end. He had a term limit as governor and he believes they inspire politicians to act instead of worry about their chances to get reelected.

Jill Stein says even with term limits the major corporations will still run elections. We need to amend the constitution to say that corporations are not people and get all money out of politics. These decisions need to be made by communities not corporations.

Closing Statements

Virgil Goode wants a balanced budget now. And he wants no more immigration or green card access while unemployment is so high.

Gary Johnson is talking about how awesome he is. He wants everyone to be able to have access to a work visa. He wants open immigration. "Wasting your vote is voting for someone who you don't believe in, I'm asking Americans to waste their vote on me."

Jill Stein the biggest way people give up power is by not knowing we have it to start with. There are 90 million voters who will not vote in this election. That is twice as many as will vote for either candidate running. Imagine those 90 million voters knew they had an option in a 3rd party candidates. She wants consumer protections on student loans and for young people to go out and vote for these things. We could turn politics in this country on its head on November 6th. We need a green new deal. We can do this now by standing up and making it so.

Rocky Anderson, "Imagine we had a candidate at the other debates to challenge this plutocracy. Both parties have warped into a corporatists anti democratic force." Both of them avoid talking about the Military Industrial Complex and the dangers of climate change. Neither candidate will mention cracking down on Wall Street because they are the recipients of that money. Neither has called for end of the insane war on drugs or military spending.

Thanks to Larry King for this opportunity to get the message out. As a journalist he still actively supports different opinions in the political process. His name greatly increased the possibility that people were watching.

This was the debate the American people deserved to hear.

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The 3rd Presidential Debate

69% voted that the Green and Libertarian Party should be included on the debates on the Xbox Live poll, Moments before the debate begins.

1st Question: Libya

Mitt Romney is talking about the Arab Spring. How he was hoping it signified change in that region. Complete lunacy. So far just self congratulations and talking points from both Romney and Obama.

They are both talking about getting rid of violent extremists in Iraq and the Middle East. Willard wants to give "our friends" in that region more economic support. That is code for, give Israel more money.

Obama calls Romney on his former gaffe of saying Russia is our biggest geopolitical threat. Also calls Romney on previously wanting more troops in Iraq and on still wanting troops in Iraq until this day. Calling Romney on his flip flopping about a timeline in Afghanistan.

Romney says the gaffes are inaccurate except that you can look up every single one on Youtube if you so chose. ( look here's one!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohKJthlRNDE ) Obama denies wanting to keep 10,000 troops in Iraq. He has said many times he does not believe we still need troops in Iraq.

Obama claims we will help opposition in Syria, but he said we need to make sure we know who we are helping so that they don't turn our weapons against us and those in the region. Obama says we can't simply give heavy weapons to Syrian's as Romney suggests. Romney wants to hurt Syria because he said they aid Iran with a port for trade.

Willard wants to instill leadership in Syria. How does he know who will be responsible to lead that war torn country? He is full of hot air. Lots of what Romney says is code for being more compliant with Israel, and doing whatever they want.

Obama accuses Romney of wanting to 'pull out' in Libya. hehehehehehe

Mitt says he doesn't want our military in Syria, he wants to arm insurgents in the country.

Obama says Romney doesn't have different ideas because we are already doing the right thing. Zing. Plus they are almost exactly the same, except for all the reasons Romney will hurt the poor.

Obama says Egyptians are just like us. They want safety and education for their families. But you can tell there was double speak about helping them as long as they support our decisions in the region and our support for Israel.

Second Question: What is America's Role In the World?

Romney: Responsibility to defend freedom. Our job is to end conflicts. American must be strong and lead.

Obama: The world needs a strong America.

Isn't that the same thing?

Then they both went on and on about our own economies problems. Because that has anything to do with the question...... But I suppose when you have rehearsed you've gotta find a place to get all the script in.

Obama suggests we need green energy. I'd like to see it.

Romney says he wants to fix education, and balance the budget. And give tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. How does that work? I hate when he says small businesses. He has no idea what a small business is.

Obama calls him immediately on including the highest tiers such himself and Obama in the small business category. Obama wants more math and science teachers. Obama wants smaller class sizes. Can he accomplish these things? Who knows....

Moderator: Can we bring this back to foreign policy?

Romney: Let me just talk about education some more.

Moderator: OK.

WTF....

Moderator: "Romney, you want bigger military. Where are you going to get the money?"

Romney: It's on the website.

Seriously?

The first thing he wants to cut is OBAMACARE. Is this real life? We need to expand the Affordable Care Act to include a single payer so someday people I know can actually have health insurance.

RMoney is going to balance the budget. By expanding the navy.

Obama wants to expand all social programs to help veterans and the middle class. Says he went to the website. Still can't figure out how to balance the RomRyan Budget.

Obama: If Israel is attacked we stand with them.
 :(
He says we are attempting our biggest military drill in the region this week with Israel. (gotta look that up)
We won't have a nuclear Iran. He says Iran sponsors terrorists and they want us wiped off the map. That is banging the war drum. I hate that. "We aren't going to take any options off the table." But he says Willard wants to take premature military action and we need to proceed with caution before we risk our young lives.

Now all of a sudden Willard thinks the Iran sanctions are great. But not strong enough. I believe I've discussed in one of the other debate posts that we are starving innocent children as we speak.
Here is a video of Willard being a lot more certain that we need war with Iran. "We will stand with the forces of dissent." (that means Israel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_yTqYwFPjc

Obama is still making sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.
(sarcasm) I'm sure Iran wants to fuck with the largest military the human world has ever seen. It only makes sense. They seem completely suicidal. (sarcasm)
Obama: "Iran is at it's weakest point."
True. We are causing riots they have so little resources.

They are taking up so much time to say the same things over and over again.

Romney doesn't see our influence growing. I'd argue that is because the GOP frightens the world. They are in place to become the newest strongest fascist government with the largest military in history if they succeed in taking over the country. And we are still killing people with drones all over Pakistan. It seems that the CIA is probably behind the drone killings. They petitioned for more drones last week, and there is now a lawsuit against the head of the CIA for authorizing drone strikes with little intelligence that there were actual terrorists.

Question 3: Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Do we still leave Afghanistan in 2014 if the country remains unstable?

Now Romney says he will absolutely withdraw by the end of 2014.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW2JG4fnrh0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xltkutf2tNU
He has the exact same policy as Obama. Except he has no idea what to do so he's just going to leave it up to the war mongering generals of the Military Industrial Complex. Really?

Obama: The transition has to take place in a responsible fashion. But we need to leave so that they can govern themselves. After a decade at war we need to take care of our nation at home: rebuilding bridges, roads, and helping veterans.

Romney supports drones in Pakistan. Believes we need to keep it up and use more drone strikes. That will move the world away from terror and Islamic extremists.

Obama wants to reform the governments of the middle east to make sure they aren't corrupt. He should probably figure out how to do that here first. "We should be proud that we stood on the side of the people.... We need to remain vigilant on terrorist activity." There have been more deaths from home grown terrorist shootings this year than any danger from the middle east. 

Obama "We need to compete with China", impossible while they allow slave labor to produce our iPods.

Romney doesn't want to be "an adversary of China in any way shape or form." If he is president America will be very strong. O.O
Moderator: You seem like you want to start a trade war with China as soon as you get into office.

Romney goes on to say all the things China can't do anymore. Since when do we tell China what to do? He wants war with Iran, now he wants trade sanctions on China, we're talking World War III here.

Obama calls Romney on shipping jobs overseas. Ironic since Obama signed legislation to increase trade with the far east.

Obama: Let's talk about education some more..... Even though this is the foreign policy debate.

Willard keeps saying, in my husband's words, "stop attacking meee..."

Romney lies like a rug.

Obama: "I'm happy to respond (shut up). You keep on trying to airbrush history."

Arguing about bailing out the auto industry, again. Willard says he supported the auto bailout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvUF0hmQVbo
Check the video, Willard said they needed to go through a managed bankruptcy. Liar Liar pants on fire.

Obama wants to invest in science and technology. And again with the roads, the bridges, the veterans. He promises he will listen to us and fight for our families. Maybe.

Romney wants to see peace. (again with the lies) He wants to make the world a safer place and make us more confident. He wants to get the economy going. He keeps touting the debt that Obama didn't create as the reason he has failed. Even though Obama has failed because of the racist GOP congress. Romney claims he can work across the isle. Even though at the start of his campaign last year he was a radical right conservative. I linked to some videos in this blog about Mitt Romney's former stances. This is the first time I have done this, but I just can't take it when he lies. I watched every single debate and many of his speeches and I can look up immediately that he said the opposite during this campaign. I encourage you to do the same if you have doubts about this election.

If this election is close with all the rigged voting machines and voter ID laws Mitt Romney could very well become our president. I'm sure the Romney supporters thought he did a fantastic job tonight, saying everything they wanted to hear while lying his ass off. Obama and the moderator did a good job of trying to expose it, I've provided some links to Mitt in his own words. The evidence speaks for itself. It's too late to register now.

I know it will work out for the best either way. Obama could pass legislation to help the middle class and the poor if he had a cooperative congress. But I'm not sure that is possible. If he wins we will still have to protest and be vigilant about changing the political and socials structures in this country. It will take longer for people to reach their breaking point. If Willard wins and he has a GOP congress they will pass so much more legislation than the George W. Bush administration got away with because there will be no one stopping them. Things will get much worse fast and there will be a quicker unifying and uprising of people. Mitt Romney may seem good to some people now, especially older racist people, but they won't be happy once he's privatized their medicaid. If the GOP steals this election we have to fight back. We didn't against George W. Bush but the enemies are far more apparent this time around. Hopefully on election day we've all made a wise decision. But either way, the change we fear but need desperately is at our doorstep.

The 2nd Presidential Debate

Romney. Already lying about wanting to increase pell grants. Even though he wants to slash those benefits. They started off the debate with a lame soft pitch question of course. 

Obama comes off better talking to real people instead of Willard at a podium. Although I read a suggestion today that we eliminate moderators and let the candidates ask each other questions which I think would be really interesting. Obama as opposed to Mitt Romney has actually tried to relieve student loan debt and expanded the pell grant program. I know, I got one for school last year.  

Mitt Romney always sounds threatening when he addresses Obama. He has the talk down at you and point my finger tone like most business men I know. Obama is better when he can move around. The questions are all going to be lame. Having read the memoranda agreement. They know all the talking points they want to cover. They have their speaches memorized. But Romney can't help but butt in and answer when it's not his turn. 
Candy Crowly isn't Jim Leher though and she's not allowing for overtime or speaking out of turn. I like that. Romney comes off as a man who would not let another person ever get in the last word. 

It seems like they are play acting. Acting out the exact characters there are supposed to be.
I wish Obama had been more successful in establishing solar energy. I can't believe in 2012 that people are so ignorant that our President has to act like he Likes coal. No one should like coal, it kills people.

In not so many words RMoney just told Obama to sit the fuck down. Especially since he didn't try and speak yet and just stood up yet. The candidates seem like they would really duke it out if it wasn't for the room full of people. Or at least have a screaming fight. Much like if you asked any liberal to sit in a room with a conservative and talk politics. 

Mitt Romney is jerkily talking over the moderator. But I think people who like him, like that. He is the bully candidate. The candidate of the aggressors. It's sad that we have an entire party dedicated to lies and hurting the poor. Not that democrats have done anything great but they don't run on "fuck the lazy poor." We can't even agree on common sense anymore. We lost the reigns of the GOP a long time ago. 

Willard says nothing of substance. I don't know what's worse because Obama says all good things but none of them happen after the fact. I'm still not convinced Obama doesn't want real change. I am still waiting for someone to present me with real evidence that he is evil instead of just a puppet. As much as I don't like wars and drone strikes, social policy and tax policies that would change under Mitt Romney would be dangerous to our society. 

We are already crumbling under the weight of the expense of keeping a system like this afloat. This is not a sustainable system. They can't keep printing money forever, eventually it has to come crashing down. Unless we keep letting the fed print money behind our backs and do secret bailouts. Even still I think we are heading towards a change of the financial system. Not because the powers at be will relinquish control, but because it is literally unsustainable for the long term because the entire system is based entirely around fraud. 

Obama policies, for instance the American Jobs Act, had they passed, would be helping us now. Romney's policy would be devastating to the middle class and the poor. Obama just called Willard on the math of his tax policy. That's a nice change. Obama is back on his game speaking quickly and surely. He comes across better when not confined and moving around. Mitt Romney seems stiff and authoritative. Some people are into that I suppose. The stiff people of the world. 

They set Obama up with another soft question to blah blah blah about how awesome he is for the Lilly Led-better Fair Pay Act. I wonder how that passed the congress. Oh, it was in 2009 before they won the majority with the rise of the Tea Party. 

Mitt is bragging about the fact that he had to Hunt Down a woman for his board because their were no qualified candidates in the pool. Hate him. How could any woman like this sleeze. It makes my skin crawl. I hate to say it but I judge people based on how they talk and look and their body language, their entire self. I always have. 

I always want to meet Obama in person. I can't believe he is evil but its hard to tell having never met someone in person. If that is the case, and Obama is lying about who he is, that means everything he's ever said to the American people is a lie. That he is completely acting about everything. He panders to those lower on the intelligence pole and he often omits things as all people do, most especially public figures. But I just can't get myself to believe President Obama doesn't want what I want. I don't think he can accomplish it. I especially know he can't accomplish anything without risking his life and his family. If speaking out strongly meant risking Zack and Kyle I don't know what I'd do. What would you do?
 
Mitt Romney is that kid in school who copied his homework in the begining of class and tells the teacher when she forgets to check it. Therefore fucking over anyone else who didn't do it either.

Twitter is ablaze. I find it super funny that even the people who don't watch the debate post about not watching. Or complain about what everyone else wants to talk about on Facebook which I never understand. Facebook has ample tools to weed out information you don't want to see and tailor your universe to only opinions that agree with your own. Those people who complain want to wake up and want to know what's going on, but since they don't they resent anyone who is openly fascinated by what's going on. 

Mitt Romney is full of lame talking points. I can't believe the American people are recognizing him as an actual candidate. He has no substance and what he does have is creepy and sociopathic. Pod person is an understatement. If Obama is a pod person, he is the best pod person the world has ever seen. The future will tell us. I can't wait to see what kind of man Obama becomes after his time as the first black president is over. He will be the youngest ex president in history. He will have a lot of time left on this earth. It will become evident if he means what he says by what he chooses to use his power for after he is no longer accompanied 24/7. 

Neither of them look confident on foreign policy. They have Almost the same policies on drones, Afghanistan, and Israel. The only difference is that Mitt Romney has stated he wants to go to war in Iran in prior debates. President Obama has given no indication that he wants to use military force in Iran. I realize that may change after the election. If Mitt wins it is certain. If Obama wins, who knows. Some believe the Democrats are lying just as much as the GOP. Will Obama win? Will we get to find out?

Obama cracks a joke about how big Mitt Romney's pension is compared to his own as president. Romney tries to go after Obama for his offshore accounts and investments. It goes no where. I'll have to fact check that one. 

The end rounded off with Obama's typical talking points about Bin Laden and Everyone getting their fair shot. Then it was Mitt's turn to tell us again how badly the President failed us in Benghazi. Nothing new was learned. Those who like Obama will continue to like Obama, and those who like Romney will continue to like Romney. But this election isn't about those people. This election is about all the people who will be voting for Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Rocky Anderson, Rosanne Barr, and Jill Stein. Jill Stein was arrested earlier today while outside the debate protesting.    Watch the video of her arrest

Many people are frustrated with the 2 party system. I think we Americans are going to find out for the first time what happens when neither candidate wins a majority of the vote. In a 2 party system when a 3rd party candidate or even 4th candidate takes away votes from the two major parties it will give the weaker party the chance for a power grab. In these scenarios it is the red states that will have the advantage. Only time will tell. Not much time at that. It's going to be quite a month. 

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The Disconnect

Many people underestimate the power we were handed with the technology to connect. Studies have come trying to blame bullying, anger, hate, pedophilia or many other unpleasant realities in our culture on this technology. Science supposedly gave us the evil that disconnects but I deem it has not. We should be thankful that in a disconnected world such as this a form of communication has developed for those of us living in little boxes. We can communicate vast distances over the noise that would otherwise drown us out. It is a gift especially when some of the people you care about most are hardest for you to connect with intellectually.

Some people completely discredit the power of social media as a tool. This story might change your mind. Many of us when we see a billboard we don't like, do nothing. But someone in Portland Oregon thought differently. They saw this billboard depicting a supposed marijuana drug addict and in their offense decided to make a funny internet meme about it. This may not seem like a big deal to you if you live in a state where marijuana is still illegal. But for Portland this billboard demonizes over 10,000 legal medical marijuana patients as drug addicts. We don't have billboarda depicting the look of someone taking too many prescription pain killers because that is a legal treatment for pain or illness. Just like cannabis is legal in some places.

After less than a day of this meme's circulation someone started an event called "Protest the Billboard at 122 & Division!" The people who felt passionate about its discrimination went to great lengths to try and contact the company that put it up. It's based in Florida and has no phone number. So after that brick wall the protesters turned to calling Clear Channel who owns the physical billbaord space. Clear Channel had no desire to pay people to field a ficticious companies complaints. Therefore issuing a statement to the company to release a phone number for complaints or it will be taken down. It was also discovered that this is a stock photo of a Methamphetamine addict that has been further photo shopped. It forced people to ask the question, why is a mysterious company from Florida posting anti cannabis posters in Portland.

In less than 48 hours these citizens had changed an actual form of propaganda in their town. At the time the billboard was announced to be taken down only 120 people had joined the event on FB out of thousands who were invited. At this time there are still only 284 people who ever replied as attending. Most of us think real social change takes more than 120 people. Have you ever tried to get 120 people to do anything? Culturally we are forced to chase down RSVPs for an event as important as a wedding. It is nearly impossible to get people to commit if it is an event of any social or civil rights importance. 

Hundreds and thousands will go support sports teams and popular musicians because there is no real conflict there. Those things are distractions. They teach us to form loyalties and divisions amongst ourselves. They teach us nationalism before we can even fully understand what is a country. When you try and get people to commit to a cause they are very selective. People's hesitation to commit to causes tells us there is power in these connections. We spend so much of our time focusing on those associations of home town, team, musical genre or however we've been categorized that we lose sight of the power we have to change things. The power is in love and unity. The more things exist to divide us or demonize other people's lifestyle choices, the longer it will take us to get to where we all have freedom to be happy.

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Media Circus

http://soundcloud.com/jackie-lane/media-circus

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Media Circus Lyrics

How can you change the will of the people?
There is so much media out there to weed through.
How can anyone know who to believe?
The news itself has been designed to deceive.
You and I know all the same things.
We can see and feel what the future brings.
We're all involved in a media circus.
All stories must be approved first.
 
Does your opinion fit into the narrative?
Revolution should be the objective.
Open your eyes and see what's around you,
Injustices plenty, enough to astound you.
You can feel it all deep inside.
You know you're sick but you don't know why.
Just keep working someday you'll have enough.
Someday we'll learn you can't buy love.

We're being blinded by great theatrics!
By great performers taught to do tricks!
They need you to believe in the American dream!
You can not know things are not what they seem.

They dance and sing to entertain us.
Say stupid things we think outrageous.
All to make sure you're not paying attention.
Keeping you naive is there best weapon.

Man is by nature a political animal (Aristotle)
Man is by nature a political animal
Man is by nature a political animal

I Will Smiteth Him From the Mountain (me)

People are bored with political correctness. 

(Clint Eastwood)

Fuck you bro (me)
Fuck you bro

People are bored with political correctness

Fuck you bro
Fuck you bro

People are bored with political correctness
People are bored with political correctness

Keep talking until someone listens (me)
Keep talking until someone listens 
Keep talking until someone listens 

One can not wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion which is highly influenced by the media and other forms of propaganda. (Douglas MacArthur)
  
Our country is now geared toward an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. (Douglas MacArthur)

No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth. (JFK)

All art is propaganda it is universally and inescapably propaganda, sometimes unconsciously but often deliberately propaganda.  (Upton Sinclair)

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history. (George Orwell)

People can see the future only when it coincides with their own wishes. (George Orwell)

The thing people (my libfem change) [women]  have yet to learn is no one gives you power, you just take it. (Rosanne Barr)

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics'. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. (George Orwell) 

Love, Jackie Fucking Lane 

Happy Anniversary Lovers!!! It's been almost 10 years since I first wrote Media Circus & that is blowing my mind. I was on the right track even back then. Make peace, not war comrades. Make peace. 

Joe Biden: Thank You For Being A Real Person

Out of all four candidates Joe Biden is the only one who seems like he would be really happy if someone gave him the green light to start telling the American people the truth.  At one point in the past year my idealistic self thought that a politician could tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and that would set us free. I have come to learn that things are far more complex than that. I realize now from all the feedback I get about politics, especially with my own friends and family, that people do not notice how influenced they are by television and Main Stream Media. They are not ready to wake up. They do not know that they need to question everything, every single thing, and the source of that news. We need to stop categorizing and stereotyping people into secs. There is no purpose served by discounting and entire group of people. Each person should be judged on their individual merits and opinions. 

It was impressive that Martha Raddatz was able to ask for serious answers on subjects such as Iran and challenge the candidates to be specific about their policies. 
Here is just the closing portion of the topic of Iran:

RYAN: A nuclear-armed Iran which triggers a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. This is the world's largest sponsor of -- of terrorism. They've dedicated themselves...
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: ... to wiping an entire country off the map. They call us the Great Satan. And if they get nuclear weapons, other people in the neighborhood will pursue their nuclear weapons, as well.
RADDATZ: Vice President Biden?
RYAN: We can't live with that.
BIDEN: War should always be the absolute last resort. That's why these crippling sanctions, which Bibi Netanyahu says we should continue, which -- if I'm not mistaken -- Governor Romney says we -- we should continue. I may be mistaken. He changes his mind so often, I could be wrong.
But the fact of the matter is, he says they're working. And the fact is that they are being crippled by them. And we've made it clear, big nations can't bluff. This president doesn't bluff.

I've read that over a 100 thousand children will die from the sanctions we have put on Iran. Their money is worth next to nothing. When certain foods, such as Chicken, are brought in those things are so scarce it nearly causes riots. Or does. It is hard to know exactly because our media is downplaying the severity of how we treat Iran. If they call us the great Satan it is because we bombed the shit out of the 2 closest countries to them, Afghanistan and Iraq. They know better than we do what beautiful places those were before we blew them up in the name of an act of terrorism that had nothing to do with those people. That's like saying we should have bombed Washington D.C. because Timothy McVeigh succeeding in doing what he planned. There is no correlation between the peoples of the world and their powerful governments.

We need to start treating insanity and extreme violent viewpoints as just that, extreme. We don't because we have been brainwashed in American to fear our neighbors. In America we believe everyone has the potential to really hurt you. I deem that they do not. I do believe that most violent rhetoric and actions are in reaction to a violent childhood or one or more traumatic experiences. We can't get rid of those ideologies with more violence. We can only progress forward if we accept that all the peoples of the world are the working class, and we all want fairness and freedom. When those freedoms are threatened it becomes easier to turn otherwise vibrant smart people into terrorists. But even still there are those among us that when faced with extreme tragedy fight harder for peace instead of react violently.

I wasn't expecting a lot of the topics they discussed to be covered well. Biden delivered, as far as intelligent answers and being genuine.
He also said the one thing people were waiting to hear from Obama all last Wednesday.

BIDEN: With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.
RADDATZ: And why is that so?
BIDEN: Because not a single thing he said is accurate. First of all...
RADDATZ: Be specific.
BIDEN: I will be very specific.

Everyone wishes more politicians would call out the lies and hyperbole we are being fed. As someone who is very passionate. It is nice to see another passionate person actually involved in politics. Many are being critical now of Biden's laughter and body language which to me were the most appealing. I am one to always analyze other peoples body language, even just in casual situations. In a Presidential debate, you can bet I consider it a factor. We shouldn't be judging leaders of the world based on body language or their personalities but the policies they are going to, or have enacted.

The Radical Right (which has completely taken over the Republican Party) already started forming their narrative about Biden's personality and body language just minutes into the debate, especially once it was obvious Biden was doing well. But I don't think anyone who was actually watching that debate felt that Paul Ryan was winning at any point, unless you already believe those lies. He came off as smug and lacking answers. He repeated all the GOP talking points perfectly. Without as much the outright lying Romney took part in, it is evident that the GOP platform does nothing to help any of the lower classes. There was a lot of rhetoric from Ryan about how they care about the middle class and how they will be tough on foreign policy and pass lots of cuts to the bloated government. But haven't we all heard that before? There were no real solutions presented. I am one to not wholeheartedly believe in the Democratic Platform for many reasons. At the very least it moves towards the future we want instead of away from it. 

It still surprises me that no one ever mentions the poor or all the people actually homeless or starving in America. The big 2 parties never talk about it. The big 6 that own Main Stream Media never talk about it. That does not make those American's pain any less real. You can pretend all you like that this is the greatest country on earth but we certainly have killed a lot of people in war and let a lot of our own suffer and starve without medical coverage for long enough. I hope someday that people like me will fight hard enough that this will be the greatest country the world has ever seen, but I won't hold my breathe. If we truly were the keepers of peace and harmony people would strive to be like us, instead of fear us.

People who already love Paul Ryan think he gave an outstanding performance. He was just as poised, polished, and ripped as they want him to be. He had the audacity to try and rattle the vice president with his reference to a horrific car accident to make the point that Mitt Romney helped that family. Biden was not rattled and spoke with sincerity about his experience of losing his wife and infant daughter in a car accident in his early days of the Senate. he often speaks of that tragedy as having helped him show people that you can survive those hardest things in life and thrive.

And for those of you that want to know why I STILL, after all my research, don't believe both parties are "exactly the same", There is this:

BIDEN: ...My friend recently in a speech in Washington said "30 percent of the American people are takers." These people are my mom and dad -- the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax. They are elderly people who in fact are living off of Social Security. They are veterans and people fighting in Afghanistan right now who are, quote, "not paying any tax."

I've had it up to here with this notion that 47 percent -- it's about time they take some responsibility here. And instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class we're going to level the playing field; we're going to give you a fair shot again; we are going to not repeat the mistakes we made in the past by having a different set of rules for Wall Street and Main Street, making sure that we continue to hemorrhage these tax cuts for the super wealthy.

BIDEN: They're pushing the continuation of a tax cut that will give an additional $500 billion in tax cuts to 120,000 families. And they're holding hostage the middle class tax cut because they say we won't pass -- we won't continue the middle class tax cut unless you give the tax cut for the super wealthy.

It's about time they take some responsibility.

If Willard wins this election with a Republican majority in congress things will get worse. He has made it obvious that he intends to cut programs for the poor and tax cuts that help the middle class, such as the child tax credit, and the mortgage tax credit. While he is raising our taxes he will be cutting the tax rates for the .01%. He also will raise military spending and claims the Obama Administration is weak in regards to Iran, even though we are killing civilians and children all over the middle east already. He also wants to reverse the rights of women, to impose his religious beliefs on others. All of these things are public common knowledge. They are the platform of the current Republican Party, despite that everything he said last Wednesday was to the contrary. All politicians may have to lie but not all lies are cut from the same cloth. Just like not all people are cut from the same cloth. It serves no purpose to throw up our hands and stalk away chanting the "all the same" mantra. We will make no progress as long as we believe we are powerless.

We will not get to the change we want through the election of a President. To believe that is naive at best. We can take baby steps to a better future without having the entirety of human civilization dismantled as the libertarians and anarchist believe is necessary. We all agree that we need to minimize human suffering.

"We want people to be able to turn to their children and say, it's going to be ok." - Props Vice President Biden.

We've Been Had: Reflections On the First Presidential Debate

Distrust in the laws and order we have established is their greatest weapon.

If those in power can get you to believe that the government is irreparably broken then there seems to be a lot less reason to fight. If there really was no way that the system could right itself if people participated then why do the men of power spend so much time and money convincing us that voting is a waste of time. People who believe in the system vote. People who would fight the system are disenfranchised. They don't know where to direct their energy. They know there is someone to blame. If you're a racist Obama is a perfect villain. If you're an atheist intellectual, or a blue collar worker, than Willard is your perfect villain. Everybody's got somebody to hate. Which is what Americans love best, why else would we watch reality TV? But Americans for the most part don't have someone representing their actual best interests in our congress. 

Obama historically may turn out to be the greatest President we've ever had. The world is in turmoil. I feel as though if anyone else were President right now we would already be at war with Iran. It is the next step. They are one of the only countries left not connected to the central banks. He looks old, he looks tired. And I think the last thing on his mind is dealing with Willard on TV. Willard is completely incapable of handling the Presidency of the United States of America and its impact on the global economy right now. He is socially inept in a lot of ways. Obama was calm because Mitt Romney's smirk and condescension was obvious Wednesday night. Obama knows he is set up to win and that the poll numbers are in his favor. Unless the GOPs voter suppression tactics and electronic polling hacking is in full effect there is no way Willard will have the support he needs to win. But I still think those are both just tactics to prove to people how little their vote matters.

The more time goes on, the more I really think Obama did not know what he was accepting when he said he would run for President. First of all, we all act like we knew the world was going to end and the economy was going to crash back in 2008 except that hindsight is 20/20 and no one knew a damn thing or was even willing to admit it was even happening until it was well underway. There are STILL people diminishing the effects of what happened and that they are still going on. Secondly he was asked to run against Hillary Clinton, amongst other qualified Democrats who had been around longer to be, the first black candidate to win the nomination of a major party. Why would he think that he could win? We all take for granted now how much of a margin Obama won by and how much support he garnered in 2008. Either the powers that picked him to run never thought he could win or they set him up to win so that he could take the fall.

In 2007 when he won the nomination I don't think he could have foreseen the path that lead us to today. When he accepted that nomination the economy had just begun to unhinge, the intellectual elites in this country were in severe denial about the nature of this economic and social collapse. Some of them still deny the reality of what happened and what is happening, I'm sure they are well compensated. I believe we all thought the problems that were created during the Bush administration would be a lot simpler to fix. We all wanted an easy answer. We all wanted a hero. And that fell on the shoulders of Barack Obama. 

The reason it appears as though Willard won the debate was that Obama has lost the passion that we loved him for. The reason I don't believe Obama could have known the reality of the world when he accepted the idea of being President is his overzealous optimism during the 2008 campaign. Willard thinks he will be inheriting power and a final confirmation of his personal superiority over others when he wins. Willard is enough of an ego maniac that he thinks he will win. And even if he loses he might say he meant to do it. His enthusiasm for this battle is evident. He is the product of bully culture, he lives for the fight. Obama's uncertainty and stress level is evident. Mitt Romney thinks he's going to win the biggest popularity contest in history.

Obama has never seemed to live for the fight. Throughout his campaigns, his debates, and his career as a politician he is often said to be to soft. I hear many say they want him to pull no punches and really attack. Well if it wasn't in his nature by now, he probably won't.  This brings me to Obama's War Presidency. Why do we still have troops in Afghanistan? Well, it's an 11 year war and the military industrial complex already had a set plan for withdrawal so that might have something to do with it. What about the drone killings in Pakistan? Why would someone who was in any way anti-war condone that? This is my own theory but here goes. 

I think that we are on the verge of World War 3 and that no one in America even knows what is going on. But that doesn't seem different from any other period of history. Before we had computers there was only T.V. and before that only Newspaper and Radio. It's a lot easier to quell the flow of information and to incite people to war and violence when you are controlling the propaganda they take in on a daily basis. Right now there is a movement away from that, but with all of our technology there are 100s of apps and websites to get your news. The people who want to control the world were one step ahead of us. Many people only turn to their favorite news source so everything they hear is through a filter that is tailored to their own ideology. The world is over saturated with news that they want us to believe is important precisely to distract us from anything else that might be taking place. 

I believe Obama is allowing the drone killings to escalate because he is staving off entering the war that Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to start with Iran. President Obama does have the largest military arsenal the world has ever seen at his disposal and I believe there are men in this world that he wants to be well aware of our drone killing capabilities. They are far more menacing than nuclear weapons, we can use them without any repercussions to our own troops or our own health in the future. I believe if John McCain, or Mitt Romney were President we would already be at war with Iran. During the 2011 GOP Primary debates, every single one of the 9 candidates who they let on T.V., with the exception of Ron Paul, said that they support war with Iran. 

Obama may have signed the NDAA but I don't believe he has as much control as everyone gives him credit for, if he didn't sign, thousands of military families would not have gotten paid for a couple of weeks, and the congress had a two thirds majority so he had no veto power in reality, which everyone forgets. He put out a statement saying he doesn't support Indefinite Detention and his administration won't use it, although we should all already know that Bradley Manning has been detained for over 865 days now. What does that mean? That one single man can not control all of the corrupt branches of the government right now, up to the including his own Administration and he's not perfect. If he was going to win this war for change he wanted, he was always going to need help and support and quite frankly he doesn't have it.

I think at the moment he's doing a damn good job at whatever show he is putting on that is keeping the world from (more) war. Europe, the Middle East, and Asia are seeing protests of a size we haven't seen in over 100 years, if ever. And not a single news organization in America says a damn word about it. Either you expect Obama to fix this, or you blame him for it. But you certainly don't think that your unwillingness to talk about this problem with your friends and family has anything to do with it. 

The culture of war and bullying have created the paranoia and fear of the government that people are experiencing. We need to ignore that fear and start talking about how we feel and what is really happening to us instead of niceties. We have to fight the urge to just tune out and not participate in the system because it is easier. It's such an easy narrative to adapt, that this is just the way the world is and there is no way we can help. In that case why would you even try. I can counter this. 

I believe firmly that you can make a huge difference if you try. The little things you do make a huge impact and you need to think about them. Where do you bank? Do you pay interest on debt? Where do you shop? What do you buy? What companies do you support and why? How much garbage do you create? Do you recycle? Do you make sure when you get new things that the old undamaged ones go to someone who need them, or do you put them at the curb because it's easier? You need to stop pretending that the things you do don't have an impact on the entire world. We need to wake up, and we need to take back control of our government because in reality government is the structure of society. You think you can live without government and the help of others? Let me know how that goes the first week you're out of power, and there is no more gas to get anywhere, and there is no water being piped to your house. What would you do? You have no idea because it's so horrible you've never even thought of it. You are taking your privileges for granted.

The reason they don't want you to care about voting and the reason they want you to believe that every politician is cut from the exact same clothe is because the American government was the first government in the world to stand up to the powers of privilege and they tried damn hard 300 years ago to make sure that corporations and moneyed interests never took control of our government. If you remove the corruption from the system, it can work. For all the talk Tea Partiers do about the sanctity of the constitution, they believe the corruptions lies in the system of government instead of where the people write the checks. 

You want to find the corruption? Turn to the wealthiest people in the world and the bank transactions and debt they control. All the arguing about who won the debate is to make sure that we never turn our attention away from politicians and focus on the real sources of power in this country and the world. 

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Occupy the Debates

No one wants to watch the debates. But we all are. It's almost unavoidable. Every website suggests watching it. Xbox live is streaming along with ustream, begging you to watch as soon as you log on. But really nothing worth hearing or that we haven't heard before is going to be said. We all know it and most of us have changed the channel already.

http://www.democracynow.org/   is streaming their version of the debates. Having Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson answer the same questions as the President and Mitt Romney. The primary difference is that the 3rd party candidates don't have to worry as much about what they are going to say. Because frankly not as many people have them under a microscope. They have real ideas about things we could be doing to move things forward and help the lower classes.

Outside the university of Denver there is an Occupy Wall Street protest taking place. You would never know from the lack of background noise and blandness going on in the giant hall on TV with it's T.V. lights, make-up crews, stuffy suits, podiums, and microphones that there is a massive protest going outside with chanting and music. Now they are on the move though marching about Denver. Blasting Rage Against the Machine and chanting. 

 Earlier in the day University of Denver students were having keggers and getting black out drunk in honor of the state of politics in the United States. 

I'm pretty sure everyone listening to Mitt Romney and Barack Obama feels the same nausea. No one likes being pandered to. Even the most apolitical people are aware of the heightened political tension in the air. They talk about not voting, they make statuses constantly about how little they care. But the truth is, even the least political person right now is worried and uncertain about what the future of the country is, because the jig is up.

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